John Hurt and Susannah York are a happy couple in some small English village. Burly, intimidating Alan Bates wanders into town, fresh from 18 years in the Australian outback. He sidles his way into the home of Hurt and York, and starts touting his exotic knowledge of Aboriginal magic.… More
John Hurt and Susannah York are a happy couple in some small English village. Burly, intimidating Alan Bates wanders into town, fresh from 18 years in the Australian outback. He sidles his way into the home of Hurt and York, and starts touting his exotic knowledge of Aboriginal magic. The film's title is somewhat misleading, because the plot's thrust is less about the deadly "shout" Bates has learned -- don't expect a typical horror movie about someone with fearsome, supernatural powers -- and more about him using a subtle hex to lure York away from Hurt.
There's an extra layer of ambiguity, because the story has a framework of Bates telling the story while scoring a cricket game in an insane asylum. So, it's unclear whether it really occurred or not. And seemingly, Hurt and York are both involved with the asylum -- but it's not clear whether they are the same people from the town, or perhaps two wholly different people whom Bates just conveniently inserted into his tale because they happened to be in his sight. Or at least, this was not clear to me. Plenty of fodder for debate here.
The film also includes some incidental intrigue for music gearheads: Hurt is a church organist who's also an avant-garde composer. So, we see him recording all sorts of everyday sounds (flies, marbles rolling on tin, puffing a cigarette, bowing fragments of a tin can, etc.) and using vintage effects boxes to warp them into eerie sounds. Furthermore, the soundtrack is by Genesis's Tony Banks and Michael Rutherford, and the music's close relation to Banks' concurrent "Wind & Wuthering"/"A Curious Feeling" material is unmistakable.
This is a movie that practically demands to be seen twice. So much understated imagery that is deceptively important -- you'll see some little object early in the film, having no idea it will be pivotal later. Then it arises again, and you think "Wait, where did I see that before?" Watch closely! It's a slightly irritating film due to a somewhat leaden pace and Bates' pretentious intensity, but it's well worth seeing.